Live & Local: Sam Mayfield

Carlos: Joining us in the studio this morning is our good friend, Sam Mayfield, the blues man extraordinaire, rhythm man extraordinaire and host of all blues. Thank you so much for taking a little bit of time to reminisce a little bit with us.

Sam:     Oh yeah, for sure, you know. We go all the way back. 1999.

Carlos: 99? You trying to make us young? 1980, Man,

Sam:     I'm talking about when I started playing all blues.

Carlos: Oh, all blues.

Sam:     Yeah, but no, no, we go way back.

Carlos: That's already 26 years.

Sam:     Yeah, me and you go way back to the uh,

Carlos: My goodness,

Sam:     What is this? Was it sixties?

Carlos: No,

Sam:     Seventies?

Carlos: Not that far back.

Sam:     Maybe it was 71.

Carlos: Yeah, I'm 90. I'll be 90 next week.

Sam:     Back in the KDKO days.

Carlos: Yeah, back in the KDKO days.

Sam:     Yeah.

Carlos: So let's talk for just a moment about those days in the late seventies and early eighties here in Denver, it was a really good time for the music. It was during those years where you met Solomon Burke. It was also during those years where there was a lot of the pioneers of this music, a rhythm and blues that you met over the years, because you guys were the first call group that was usually going to back up these folks who were coming through town. Any special memories of that era?

Sam:     Yeah, the voters club. The casino, remember the Casino? Percy Mayfield, and all of 'em came through. All the guys came through the voters. You remember Leroy Smith?

Carlos: Of course,

Sam:     We'd back all those people. It was just a different time, you know? The Five Points was totally different. We had Casino, we had Rasonia, Casey's, we had just different clubs down there. So many musicians, lots of musicians during that time. James Brown used to come through here. All of 'em. We just have a good time.

Carlos: Yeah. I remember you had Esther Phillips.

Sam:     Oh yeah.

Carlos: You would also have groups that would come in, clubs that were around that five points area, like Smitty's playroom and Lounge.

Sam:     Oh yeah. Now you really going. Yeah.

Carlos: Yeah.

Sam:     That's back in the day. We used to have plenty of fun, Carlos, you and I both. Those were the good old days. Yeah, yeah. We had used, because he used to bring in little Milton all kinds of different acts at Smitty's Playroom.

Carlos: Yeah, and I remember during those days, because Smitty would always come into the radio station. At the time it was KDKO, and he'd always bring in the artist and we would have a great time, and some of those artists, I had seen 'em for the very first time.

Sam:     Is that right?

Carlos: Yeah. I had not seen, for example, never saw Lowell Fulson, you backed up the legendary Lowell Fulson. At Smitty's,

Sam:     Yeah. I had Denise LaSalle all of 'em back in the day, you know. I ain't even gonna lie, my blues is from playing behind these different artists as a guitar player. Back in those days, that's how I learned my art. I used to play saxophone too, when I was going to school. But-

Carlos: So when you mentioned the guitar, obviously, and you get such a beautiful sound out out of your guitar, it doesn't matter which guitar you're playing. I've seen you play that kind of dark Blue Hollow body Gibson, I think it is.

Sam:     Yeah. I still got that.

Carlos: You still got that Axe?

Sam:     Yeah, tha t's what I-

Carlos: Oh man. That's a beautiful, instrument.

Sam:     That's what I'm using now. Yeah.

Carlos: Yeah. You get such great sound out that

Sam:     It's custom made. Gibson Custom made that for me.

Carlos: Really? Yeah. That's a beautiful instrument, or if you're just playing the straight up

Sam:     My fender?

Carlos: The fender rocker.

Sam:     Yeah, the fender. My red fender.

Carlos: Yeah.

Sam:     Gray fender. I got a white fender. I got all kind of guitars.

Carlos: So I guess what I want to ask you first and foremost is, when you first really defined your sound, this is the way you wanted to sound...

Sam:     I wanted to play. Yeah.

Carlos: Who was that? Because everybody emulates somebody when they start off. When you heard something who you can tell us a couple of the

Sam:     Gatemouth Brown. BB King. Of course. BB King was one of my favorite guitar players. I learned a lot of his licks and stuff. Then I had to get away from him and do my own thing, you know. So get my own groove together- as you want to say. And who else just come to play guitar? Like you said, Lowell Fulson. There was so many people that came to Denver when I played with, like I said, the Denise LaSalle. They had Howard Bomar was with me back in them days.

Carlos: Howard Bomar.

Sam:     Yeah. Yeah. He was a great vocalist. Great vocalist you know. We just used to have, at the casino, we used to have so much fun at the casino. It was,

Carlos: That was your home turf.

Sam:     Yeah. Yeah, it was.

Carlos: That's what I say Mayfield held Court.

Sam:     Yeah, right? Yeah.

Carlos: There was other soul bands in Denver back in those days and so forth, but you guys really, you were like the hometown Five Points band.

Sam:     Right? Right.

Carlos: You come to the points, you're going to hear Sam.

Sam:     Yeah, I grew up down there. I started playing down there when I was like 12 years old with different kinds. Like you say, I learned my craft down there, but now I just do my thing. It comes from my heart and my soul.

Carlos: Yeah. There's been musicians who've come through here who worked with you when they were very young and went on to a lot of fame.

Sam:     Oh yeah. What did it say? Larry Donn, Philip Bailey

Carlos: From Earth, Wind, and Fire?

Sam:     Yeah. Earth, Wind, and Fire, yeah. They used to play with me back in the day, but they were part of my band and they were playing. Bailey, Phil, was playing drums.

Carlos: Philip Bailey?

Sam:     Yeah. He was playing a trap. And Larry Jones was on the argue and Fat Net was on the bass, and I was on the guitar. And that's I think that's when we had Al, with us too. And then we used to just all night long. We'd leave after hours, till six o'clock in the morning, you know, go in at two o'clock, six, seven o'clock in the morning. When we'd leave there,

Carlos: We had a lot of energy.

Sam:     Oh yeah.

Carlos: Back in those days.

Sam:     A lot of younger. Yeah.

Carlos: Yeah. So how did you meet Solomon Burke, and how'd that come together? Because that's a very special relationship.

Sam:     Well, I met a guy, at Max Tavern, Mac. He brought Solomon Burke into his club down there on, what was that, Stout street? I think it was 23rd and Stout. It was called Max Tavern. And I had my band, you know, big Nat, and he came in late as usual, when he had no rehearsal, none. But I was familiar with his music, so I grew up on that. And he walks in, he gets on stage and we was on it, you know? And after that, he got me to start traveling with him.

Carlos: I see.

Sam:     In those days, it was like, what, 70 something? 72. Something

Carlos: That early, huh?

Sam:     My goodness. Yeah. I was with him a long time. I was with him until the very bitter end. If you want to say so, and like you said, we played all over the world together. I was his band leader, so

Carlos: Right, right. Well, Solomon used to get into these long medleys.

Sam:     Oh yeah.

Carlos: He had so many songs.

Sam:     That's right.

Carlos: And of course, you were working overtime with a band whipping those guys into shape and knowing, oh, here comes- He's going to drop this one us.

Sam:     Yeah, I got him. You follow me.

Carlos: Yeah.

Sam:     That's where he goes.

Carlos: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You were with Solomon during those, what we almost call the lost years.

Sam:     Right.

Carlos: There were so many superstar artists that were on the big stage in the sixties. Like Ruth Brown,

Sam:     Right.

Carlos: Solomon Burke, you know, Charles Brown, all these people, they were like rhythm and blues stars. And they would play big halls and so forth. And then of course, when rock and roll came in and other things happened, people forgot about who they were. And then they had to go back to the quote-on-quote, almost Chitlin' Circuit, as you used to call it, so they were forgotten. And that meant that their ability to sustain their lifestyle because of their earnings decreased substantially.

Sam:     Right.

Carlos: And a lot of 'em just quit performing, or didn't play as much, didn't have as many hit records.

Sam:     They weren't paying them no royalties. They just weren't any gigs. Me and Solomon, we used to, we'd play in the church. We'd go to churches all around the country. We had a lot of the recordings too, from the church back in them days. That's how, I learned the feeling of it, we went through it.

Carlos: And the beautiful part about this is that you were with him in those final years where he was back on top working some big halls opening for the Rolling Stones. That's right. We were there just out there in the European circuit with Nina Simone out in Germany and Neville Brothers and all this stuff. So you saw, you went from Smitty's playroom and Lounge to the biggest halls and the respect and everything else.

Sam:     That's right.

Carlos: The pedestal that he was put back up on, man.

Sam:     That's right. Like I said, we played all over the world. Was it Germany? We used to play there a lot.

Carlos: I think he played Germany right around that time when the wall came down. Isn't that true?

Sam:     Right. Yeah. We went in there, what was that? What year was it? 80 something. We went in there when the wall was up, and then when the wall came down, back down, we went back and their tune was "A change is gonna come."

Carlos: I see.

Sam:     As a song that Solomon had recorded. Right. And wasn't that by Sam Cooke. Yeah. Sam Cooke song as a Sam Cooke song. Yeah. They had us come back and after that, everything changed over there. West Berlin, we played everywhere over there.

Carlos: Right, right. You did TV shows.

Sam:     Oh yeah. I got a lot of videos

Carlos: in Italy and other places?

Sam:     Wow. Yeah. They named a bridge after Solomon Burke over there in Italy when we used to drive over to get to the venue, come into Italy. We just had a great time. You know, this is just you know, living the blues.

Carlos: Right. Solomon liked to cook too.

Sam:     Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He could cook, and he liked that fried chicken. Yeah. We used to have it going on. Esther Phillips, all of us. We used to have so much fun. James Brown, Sly Stone, he was on the shows with us over there in Europe.

Carlos: Right.

Sam:     That was before he left.

Carlos: Right, right.

Sam:     The scene.

Carlos: Before he quit performing.

Sam:     Yeah. The scene.

Carlos: Right. So how are you doing these days, Sam? Obviously you're not working. Like you used to, we're on this other side right now, just kind of looking to, we do a lot of reminiscing. We're going through a lot of filing the memories, so to speak, and so forth.

Sam:     And I'm enjoying my life right now.

Carlos: Yeah. You work when you want to.

Sam:     Yeah. I work when I want to. And like I said, I'm still recording. I have a studio in the basement of my house, and I record and write songs and do other people too as well, you know.

Carlos: Right. Right

Sam:     But other than that, you know, I'm happy with my life. Like I said, I've seen it all...

Carlos: And sometimes what's coming you don't want to see anyway.

Sam:     Right. That's right. Yeah. But I've seen Denver down at Five Points change so much. There's no more clubs- for blues. And Blues is just,

Carlos: Yeah. F or the Blues, right? Yeah.

Sam:     They're just not there anymore. So I play at home.

Carlos: That's right. Remember those nights, three sets a night? That's right. And that was before, after hours.

Sam:     That's it, and I'm looking forward to going to the venue at Balistreri Vineyards.

Carlos: Yeah, Balistreri Vineyards.

Sam:     Yeah. I got all the guys with me. I got Jodie Woodward.

Carlos: Mhm.

Sam:     I got Scotty.

Carlos: She's a great bass player.

Sam:     Yeah. Scotty on drums. Like I said, I got AC on keyboards and harmonica and my horn players, Toby Hopper, who else, we got John Brady. Of course Jimmy Bets will be there,

Carlos: Of course. With a Tambourine.

Sam:     Oh yeah. Gotta have him.

Carlos: Good old Jimmy.

Sam:     Yeah, we got-

Carlos: A good blues man has got to have his own mc.

Sam:     That's right. He's my man. We go all the way back. We got Mr. Wonderful.

Carlos: Yeah, of course

Sam:     He's going to be there. So we're looking forward to everybody coming out, you know, and just have a good time. Like we always have done, you know, enjoy the music, because like you said, it's coming from my heart and soul.

Carlos: Yeah. Sam, thank you, man. Appreciate it. It's been, you know, a real privilege, man, having met you and becoming such, having such a great friendship over all these years, man.

Sam:     That's right. That's the way we are.

Carlos: Yeah.

Sam:     And we're blessed. Truly blessed.

Carlos: Thank you.

Sam:     Thank you for having me.